Shinobi
by Raiyoukai
Summary: 3 years following the mess they'd made in the Valley of the End, Sasuke Uchiha lives a solitary life among the people of Zanarkand. Unable to be seen, or interact with anyone, he passes the days by training to kill Itachi and waiting for Naruto to return him to where they belonged. Alas, when Naruto returns he brings hell with him, and a pilgrimage for salvation. That idiot.
1. Foreword

It is a curious phenomenon to observe; the most minor of moves, the smallest of changes, the slightest of detail adjustments, all can cause the most drastic of alterations to the woven threads of fate. But in this situation, regarding these people, it is not simply a small change that would impact the other side of the world. It is the actions of two boys that would shred the tapestry of death that entrapped Spira, and so render upon the whole world a new era of peace.

Perhaps 'boys' is an ill-fitting word for the two individuals. Young as they were when they arrived, children by the eye of you and I, they were raised in a warrior culture – born and bred as the latest generation in an ever present period of constant warfare. To their people they were weapons, trained to be pointed at whatever enemy lurked in the shadows. To their people they were shields, trained to be guardians for their masters until their destruction.

I do not think there is a single person in all Spira that will refute the strength granted to the two by their people's training. On the open battlefield, they wielded the strength of Behemoths and blades of finest steel, as many a written record will detail when discussing the journey of Lady Yuna's retinue. In the shadows, they practiced their stealth and assassination – skills that would directly lead to what is now called the Great Exodus.

Even in the simplest of arts such as camouflage the two would be proven efficiently trained beyond our reasoning. Their ability to mix and blend amongst strangers and enemies is as strange as it is fascinating, and all the more intangible and unplaceable. Or in arts long lost to Spira such as demolition and terrorism. The two were frightful individuals indeed, and in this long peace must be admired and feared for what they truly are. We must never forget the Tragedy of Bevelle, nor what lead to it.

Above all of this, however, what must be awed are their powerful magicks; magicks that were and to this day remain incomprehensible to even the High Magus Enclave of Yevon. Magicks mighty enough to match even those of the oldest of Flans. Magicks that could rival the strength of Aeons. Magicks that could surpass even the mighty Sin.

It is truly no exaggeration when I state that the two changed fate. Their arrival in Spira is not something that should have been possible. And, by their own recount, the outcome that caused it was not something either had truly planned to do. Perhaps there is some deity in existence that altered the path of the world, but it is hard to believe in such an incorporeal being in the face of those two.

It will forever remain a mystery just how the two found themselves in Spira. The divergent result of a battle between two immature warriors of immeasurable power is all that I will ever be able to declare truthfully. What is known is that we must thank and honour the two for their efforts in saving us. If ever there were such a thing as a deity, I would believe it only if it wore the face of the Two.

They are figures of nightmares and dreams. Cruel and merciless, yet kind and merciful. With one hand they create peace, with the other they destroy order. They are heroes and villains of our people, and so I present to you the truth as I know it. An unaltered tale of their efforts in aiding Lady Yuna. An unaltered tale of the triumphs and tragedies they wrought upon Spira.

Know their names, and know their story. The story of Naruto and Sasuke. The story of _Shinobi_.

-Maechen the Scholar, "Eternal Shinobi, Eternal Calm." Foreword


	2. Zanarkand

Elevated high above the sea the city of Zanarkand was built upon, a web of highways designed solely for the thoroughfare of humanity wove between and interlinked with the numerous buildings that rose towards the heavens – not a one lesser in height to any common mountain. Upon these highways trode a sea of humanity, emanating a cacophony of cries and chaos as they surged towards the night's entertainment and revel.

All in all, it was quite the typical night for the wondrous city.

Above it all, perched upon the shadow clad roof of one glass covered building indistinguishable from the fifty nigh identical towers that surrounded it, loomed a sole figure. The figure, a youth on the cusp of manhood glared down at the merry-making populace. He wore clothes that could more accurately be described as cloths, black in colour, full of holes and frayed to ragged edges with years of wear and tear. The pieces of scrap fabric found their home worn around the youth's waist – barely concealing from any discerning eyes that which made him a man and tied with an equally frayed cord. Another rested around his head, doing a much better job of concealing his left eye.

Around the young man countless billboards blared their messages and advertisements to the seething mass below. They were perfect for distracting wandering eyes from gazing upon the youth's figure as they moved from one to the next. That is, if they were able to see him in the first place. Which they couldn't.

A coal black eye set in an angular face gazed dispassionately down at the attire their owner was adorned with. ' _I wonder what the idiot would say if saw me like this,_ ' the youth mused to himself, taking a moment to blow and equally black bang away from his face. ' _Hn. He'd probably be too busy laughing to say anything… I'd say intelligent, but he couldn't manage that even if he weren't laughing._ '

Bare feet trod lightly through the darkness between billboards, the sword hanging through the cord at his waist banging against them as he lingered in the shadows. A bitter laugh escaped him as he progressed once more towards nowhere.

" _I can't believe I'm actually missing that idiot. What a joke_."

It would be yet another typical night for the youth it seemed. Perhaps he'd go and laugh at whatever latest piece of theatre these people had decided to remake for the umpteenth time. Or perhaps he'd instead go and waste a couple hours witnessing the latest in a never ending series of sequel films. That was something these people had in common with his own. He didn't want to recount the amount of times he'd listened to the idiot ramble about those damnable _Fuun-hime_ films.

The idiot must have been shocked senseless once it occurred to him that he would miss the latest incarnation of greed that labelled itself entertainment. Once it occurred to him of course. The cloth clad teen allowed himself to think on better days, days where he wasn't a ghost; lost in a city larger than any he'd ever seen before arriving five years hence. Days filled with a buffoon that would never let him be. Days filled with smiles and laughter, and a sense of belonging.

The city around the youth was quiet as he lost himself in his recollections. It reminded him of the nights spent training into the early hours in his home village. The utter silence, as not even a wind blew. The true quiet as everything went still, not even the smallest of animals moving from their dens for the night.

It was a magical experience. One that should be impossible for such a large city. And yet it was present, there was not a single sound to be heard. Not the screams of excitement as fans ventured forth to see people hold their breath for 10 minutes. Not the buzz of electronics from the ever-present and looming buildings, signs, streetlights and more. There wasn't even the gentle sound of the waves lapping at the bases of the city's architecture.

' _What the hell is going on!'_

The teen was no idiot. He had existed within this city for five years, he had spent days after day training without sleep, week after week utilising the skills of his clan to learn the language these people spoke and steal every sword technique he could lay his eyes on. Never, not once in all of that time had the city been silent. It was truly impossible.

"Sasuke,"

The voice of a child rang out from behind Sasuke, another impossibility. There was no one there. There'd been no one there when he walked past that spot two seconds ago, and these people were incapable of sneaking up on him. So sure in the impossibility, Sasuke continued to walk on, not taking even the slightest pause.

"Sasuke, of the Uchiha Clan,"

The voice rang out again. Except it didn't. Because there was no one there. In fact, there wasn't even a voice. It was simply a memory, dredged up from its long forgotten pit because of his meandering down memory lane. And back it would go, unnoticed and unexplored, because Sasuke was done remembering people he hated for the night.

Taking notice that he was running out of buildings on this side of the street, there were only 20 left after all, Sasuke leapt across the frozen heads of the denizens of the night far below to reach the other side. He landed lightly on the balls of one foot, continuing steadily into a quite sedate pace. It was the inate grace of a true genius, and not at all because he'd done it a hundred times over until perfected to chase away the boredom.

" _Uchiha Sasuke_ "

It should be noted that the sedate pace of an Uchiha is in fact quite fast by the reckoning of an untrained civilian. But that was simply nonsense, conjured by those unaware of their might. They had things that constantly needed doing. There was simply no time to dawdle. Ever. They were trained from birth to ensure that they never wasted a single moment doing something as supremely boorish as, for example, trudging along on a path to nowhere with their hands behind their head. That was something only idiots who would be better off wearing orange jumpsuits and spouting off about foolish things like ramen would do. Not like him, not like a genius of the Uchiha clan.

" _Uchiha Sasuke of the Leaf."_

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't done any long distance running in quite a while. It'd been almost twelve hours since he last tested just how far he could go. And the feel of the wind rushing past his ears would be perfect for drowning out voices that weren't there because he most certainly was not going crazy.

" _Uchiha Sasuke of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."_

Perhaps instead of long distance running he should simply try engaging in some nice sprinting. The rush of the wind would be even greater then. He'd always loved the wind, especially how it did awesome things like putting out fires and impossibly weak fireballs that he had never produced just because he'd been too weak at the time. He was not weak. Weak people could go crazy. And after five years of soul-crushing loneliness there was no chance at all that he, Sasuke Uchiha could possibly go crazy and start hearing voices.

" _Naruto said you might be difficult, but this is not what I expected._ "

Suddenly Sasuke stopped. The world was once more silent and frozen. Naruto. That's what the voice had said. Naruto. Not 'that idiot,' not 'the dead-last,' not even 'that sanctimonious blonde piece of shit that should have been drowned when he was born.' Naruto. A name he hadn't even dared to think since they had been separated.

Whirling around, a heated red eye glared fiercely at the figure of a small boy dressed in a blue hooded robe and khaki pants standing much too close for Sasuke to appreciate. Black _tomoe_ swirled within said eye, creating a hypnotic pattern even some of the strongest of minds couldn't help but fall prey to.

" _Ah, so that's what it takes to get your attention._ "

The _tomoe_ swirled faster, fast enough that they appeared to be fusing together to create some form of pattern upon the furious red background that was once a calm coal black. One hand reached and grasped at the hilt of his blade, the other slipped beneath the cloths wrapped around his waist, reaching for the carefully maintained variety of short blades kept hidden in their pouch beneath.

" _Calm yourself, Uchiha Sasuke. I bring you no harm, merely advice. You should watch the game tonight, you might just run into an old friend._ "

The boy disappeared in a flash of light before Sasuke's eye even had the chance to widen in surprise. Blinking harshly to adjust, his ears were assaulted once more with the symphony of screams that made up the nightlife of Zanarkand.

Sasuke's brows furrowed as he pondered what the boy (and most certainly not the figment of his imagination – because he was not crazy, thank you very much) had told him. 'The game' probably referred to that weird underwater sport everyone in this city adored. He'd overheard that it was supposed to be some big event. Kind of hard not to when they had announcers and announcements blaring out about it for the past week.

" _An old friend, huh? If it's not the idiot, then I'm going to find that kid and kill him._ "

With a dark, savage grin spreading across his lips, the completely sane Sasuke Uchiha turned and headed towards his destiny.

And the Kilika Fried Chicken Stadium.

This was, without a single doubt, the stupidest thing that Sasuke had ever had the misfortune to bear witness to.

Which, considering just who he had spent the better half of his childhood interacting with, spoke more eloquently than a poet ever could the sheer apathy and tedium the lost Uchiha felt for the spectacle unfolding in front of him.

'The game' had yet to actually start, and so Sasuke had been forced to endure a repetitious onslaught of brain cell destroying buffoonery that he had once thought impossible. Having arrived early in the midst of a tide of city-dwellers expecting it to start soon, he had been forced to endure watching what these people thought made good entertainment while he waited for the idiot to show himself.

He had initially laughed at the pathetically basic athletic skills exhibited by the not very attractive women in synchronisation. They were performances that somehow proved that even non-existent faith could be rendered lower after turning most of the men (and quite a few women) into drooling fools. Stupefaction had found him soon after though as the amateur showing of skills from 'development teams' amazed the crowd of onlookers. Fresh into the field _Suna genin_ were more proficient in underwater movement and combat.

All in all, what had once been a feeling of dread at the thought of being bored all evening had been transformed into hope. Hope that something interesting would happen. Hope that this whole evening hadn't been a complete waste of his time. Hope that little not-imaginary ghost children bled the same colour as random thugs. Hope that something would capture his attention and prove to be worth stealing.

Once he might have tried to defend himself to himself, and claim that using his hereditary abilities to learn something just by seeing it was indeed just that, learning. Years of the same argument with himself every time he'd gotten bored and started watching things he had no idea about had worn the justification more than a little thin.

So stealing it was. Stealing was fun. Stealing kept the incessant knowledge that he was all alone in this world with nothing and no one to help him and it was all his own damn fault at bay. Stealing was something he knew would piss the idiot off, and he relished every chance he could to do so.

Seated on the roof of the stadium stewing in frustration as he was, Sasuke was vaguely aware that the sphere of water that had previously been used for the opening games had dissipated. The process used in the creation of said sphere had actually been interesting. Two large, mechanical rings that spun on independent axis, arcing around an invisible sphere until, with a flash of sound and roaring noise not unlike lightning, what was empty air was suddenly water. For the life of him, he couldn't work out how the water was formed, nor how the two suddenly still rings kept the giant sphere afloat in the air.

He paid half-attention as some random guy on the loud speaker started talking about a coffee shop or something, he'd been talking all through the night about various things that had had Sasuke tuning him out quicker than one of the idiot's speeches about ramen. Whatever he was talking about had somehow managed to bring the mood of the crowd down before reigniting fiercer than ever. He assumed that was probably something that might have been important, but he really couldn't bring himself to care.

A commotion at the entrance captured his attention briefly; the blonde kid whose sword techniques he'd been liberally stealing for the past couple years was trying to fight his way through the crowd. Mystery solved as to why women were screaming like little girls, Sasuke returned to staring absently at where the centrepiece of the night was set to be redeployed.

A blast of music suddenly echoed out of the speakers, replacing the drone of whoever had been speaking about whatever. The rings that formed the water sphere began to shift from their idle position, and the roar of the crowd echoed out into the night with volume with equal measure to Sasuke's impatience.

The sphere was created. The teams were introduced. The crowd swelled in size as those who only cared about the actual match itself (how Sasuke envied their knowledge of just when this thing would start). Some form of anthem was sung. And suddenly the game begun.

It was, Sasuke admitted, not as bad as the preliminary matches might have made the sport seem. There was a fluid aggressiveness to their movements within the water, movements that made it appear as though they had been born to move within that water sphere. They managed to communicate through subtle gestures and body language, and tactics were altered on the fly in bizarre methods as the blonde managed to capture attention in one way or another, diverting it all from his teammates to the point where they seemed almost invisible – 3 unanswered goals proved the tactics most useful.

A gimlet red eye paid close attention to every movement every player made, if nothing else, he would take advantage of this opportunity to steal new ways of operating underwater – he could easily translate the gentle tackles into much more effective and deadly combat abilities. Focused as said eye was on all of the players, it almost missed the way the blonde leader's – in the midst of some overblown attention seeking stunt – own widened in shock.

Turning his head to see what had shocked the man, Sasuke could only stare in disbelief at the large creature floating in its own sphere of water in the distance. The city of Zanarkand distorted around it, the buildings twisting and warping as though they were drawn into an irreversible well of gravity. The blasts of seemingly pure energy that lanced towards the city seemed almost insignificant compared to the sheer wrongness the creature exuded.

Almost, because there was nothing insignificant about being blown off the roof of the arena as the energy blasts impacted throughout the city. The shockwaves of the resulting explosions ripped through countless skyscrapers; man's modern marvels no match against the sheer devastation wrought by the creature.

A crimson eye continued to memorise every inch of the thing in front of them, even as their owner plummeted head first towards the ground far below. Sasuke saw in his peripheral vision as the blonde athlete fell from where he'd been trying to cling to one of the water genesis rings. The predictive element of his hereditary abilities showed him what fate awaited the man; a pool of red slowly bleeding into blue from a broken body. It was sufficient distraction from the thing to allow Sasuke the wherewithal to alter his flight path.

The last thing he wanted to do was end up like whatever-his-name-was.

' _Hn, I probably should have learned his name._ '

An hour later Sasuke had managed to extricate himself from the crumbling arena and its crazed denizens. The sheer level of delirium and panic the people exhibited was ridiculous, it was like these people had never been trained on what to do in case of sudden attack from hostile forces. Which couldn't be possible – he had never heard of anyone, anywhere, not knowing exactly what to do in case of sudden explosions.

Sure, for the most part, civilian villages' version of said training tended to consist of 'huddle in a corner,' and 'pray to whatever you believe in you don't die,' but that was better than running around like a rabbit with a _kunai_ thrown into it ass. Or even like an idiotic _genin_ trying to retrieve said thrown blade. The blonde fool had never got that _kunai_ back, in the end.

Picking his way through the piles of rubble and crushed bodies that were arrayed in front of the once lively arena, Sasuke noticed a lone calm figure in the sea of madness. Moving closer to the only other sane individual he could see, he felt a great sense of ill premonition.

" _Hey, you!_ " The sheer disrespect and disregard layered into the two exceedingly common and vulgar words of his natural tongue proved that premonition correct. There was no one in the world who would dare address him in such a manner. No one but that moron.

" _Dead-last_." Much to the rejection of what copious memories showed should be the correct response, the wide smile on the face of the figure in front of him seemed to just grow impossibly larger. The fiercely warm embrace he found himself enveloped in was even more impossible. Shock was much too simple a word to accurately describe what Sasuke felt in that moment.

" _What do you think you're doing?_ " The voice that escaped Sasuke's throat was choked and guttural, a gamut of emotions each vying to be the one most expressed as the Uchiha greeted the one he once thought of as a brother. He adamantly ignored the feeling of wetness on his cheeks, and the sudden dampness of his shoulder, where the figure's blonde head had burrowed itself.

" _I'm sorry, but I'm just… so glad!_ " Sasuke didn't know what that was supposed to mean. He didn't want to know what that was supposed to mean. He also really didn't want to know just why the other man had appeared amidst an attack on the city by a creature whose powers seemed equal to the walking nightmare that had assaulted his home village in the year of his birth.

Shrugging his way out of the embrace, Sasuke carved a scowl onto his face as he walked on into the destroyed city.

" _Hn, whatever."_ Scowl carefully, and perfectly, crafted, he allowed his eye to take in the other man's figure properly. Blonde hair sat atop a tanned face, sapphire eyes red with tears gazed blearily back at him from their placement above the black stripes on each cheek – reminiscent of whiskers. The blonde was dressed in layers of predominantly white robes; orange waves artistically patterned on to the _haori_ worn as the outermost layer. Simplistic straw sandals sat surrounding sore soles, and a bandaged left arm used one of the arms of the _haori_ as a makeshift sling.

" _So? What now, Naruto?"_ Quickly gathering himself, Naruto wiped the remaining tears from his eyes and gave Sasuke a blinding grin before finally settling into a more serious state. The blonde's entire self seemed to steel in front of Sasuke's eyes.

"Now? Now we move forwards," Naruto said cryptically. Red eye narrowed, but the blonde showed no sign of being affected by Sasuke's glare. In fact, he seemed amused. "We'll head toward that thing, _"_ he pointed towards the floating monstrosity in the distance. "That's our way out of here."

Seeing that he wouldn't be getting anything more out of Naruto, Sasuke let out a grunt and took off. He wasn't surprised to see Naruto keeping pace with him easily as he leapt and ran across the buildings and bridges of the destroyed city.

" _What is that thing anyway,"_ Sasuke questioned. As much as he didn't want to know just what connection his once-friend had with it, knowledge willingly disregarded was not something any _shinobi_ worth a damn would allow to happen.

"They call it Sin. The 'manifestation of all the wrong-doings of their ancestors,'" Naruto explained with finger quotes. "It's a stupid belief, but it's what they're taught and no one can tell them otherwise."

Sasuke didn't know who 'they' were, but for even the idiot to call them stupid… he really didn't want to meet these people. He had a feeling it would end with quite a few left traumatised by the colour red.

"So, how have you been?" Sasuke responded to the question with silence.

"Anything interesting happen these past couple years?" More silence.

"Do you know how to use that sword you got?" That question managed an eye-roll, that Sasuke realised only too late would probably only encourage his fool companion.

Honestly, Sasuke was never one for making small talk, and while he remembered his fellow _shinobi_ being quite fond of it, had no interest in it. Or appreciation for it.

"Why are you wearing rags?" A good question, and one that earned the blonde a flinch of barely repressed anger and embarrassment. It was hardly his fault that he'd outgrown most of his old clothes. Nor was it his fault that he'd worn out all those that still fit. He needed to train after all. And only a pervert would do that naked, no matter where or for what reason.

"C'mon, why wo- Oh, we're here." Naruto cut his next question as short as he did his running; coming to a full stop to glance down at the creature implanted into one of the walkways below.

" _What is it?"_ Sasuke asked, taking in the appearance of the creature. It appeared to be some sort of squid-like thing, tentacles flailing in the air casting scales off throughout the city. A couple of the scale that landed close by transformed into some bird-fish thing. They were strange, but seemed incredibly weak. He couldn't fathom why Naruto would stop because of any of it.

"A piece of Sin. This one looks more annoying than dangerous, but it'll probably make it a pain to get outta this place." Saying that, Naruto dropped down to land on the bridge in front of the squid-thing. Seeing no reason not to do the same, Sasuke followed him.

Looking at it close-up, Sasuke noticed that it was a bit bigger than he'd thought. It was still nothing impressive, but it was worth noting. The only thing worth noting, really. Scanning the crowd of bird-fish around the squid he estimated that it'd take less than a minute to wipe them all out. Maybe a bit more if the squid was more resistant to electricity than he was giving it credit for. An annoyed sigh at his side indicated that Naruto had come to a similar conclusion.

"You hit the big one," the blonde said, his unbandaged hand coming up in front of his body, two fingers extended from a fist. "I'll take the rest."

A blast of smoke bloomed from around Naruto as he appeared to suddenly multiply. A horde of blonde clones charging off to deal with the crowd. Once, Sasuke might have been annoyed at the blonde for taking all of the enemies, but these ones were so weak that the blonde might as well have been doing the red eyed teen a favour.

Extending his hand, Sasuke began to channel his chakra – the physical manifestation of one's mental and physical prowess capable of forming feats beyond limited imaginings – into his hand, steadily converting the raw ethereal material into an electrified energy. Steadily gathering more and more, Sasuke shaped the electricity crackling in his palm, sharpening it and the hand it was in to a state of pinpoint piercing potential.

The gathering of lightning had taken him a brief three seconds, and yet in that time he could see that his blonde compatriot had managed to take care of his share of the creatures. There were a couple stragglers, but for the most part the blonde was free to watch as Sasuke rushed forward. He covered the distance between he and the squid within the blink of an eye before piercing his lightning coated arm directly into centre-mass.

Arcs of lightning blasted outwards from within the piece of Sin, leaving countless cauterised hole from where they had emerged. The thing barely had time to twitch before it scattered apart into glowing orbs. Sasuke allowed his eye to track them in confusion before flickering to meet blue in silent question.

"Pyreflies. Everything nasty this side of the world seem to be made of 'em. Don't know what they really are though."

Letting out a grunt, Sasuke lowered his arm and allowed his red eye to bleed back to black. He'd had his _Sharingan_ active for most of the night, and his eye was beginning to hurt. He followed Naruto as the whiskered teen charged off ahead of him, closing in on Sin until they were right below the colossal creature.

Spinning to look straight into Sasuke's eye, Naruto smiled a small smile. "This is it, this is where everything changes." The world around Sasuke began to distort, he attempted to disrupt the illusion to no avail. "This isn't a _genjutsu_ , Sasuke. Just your ride out. Relax and when you wake up, the world will be a different place. So try and use this language, _-ttebayo_ "

Sasuke scowled, and if looks could kill (an hour ago, _his could_ ) the blonde would be burning in fires blacker than night. He hadn't even realised they'd been speaking different languages, too used to listening to everyone in the city speaking the same as Naruto has been. Seeing the look on Sasuke's face, Naruto's smile turned into a luminous grin.

"My teacher loved stories. One of his favourite beliefs was that everyone is the hero of their own. I feel like, at a time like this, he'd say: 'This is your story.'" The blonde was stretched out impossibly long before his eye, and yet Sasuke could still see the mischievous smile that he wore. "So try and enjoy it, - _ttebayo._ "

The numerous curses that Sasuke screamed at him would go unheard and unanswered as his world was entirely enveloped in blinding light.


	3. Sunken Temple

The Uchiha compound was silent, illuminated in the light of a red moon.

Blood pooled beneath Sasuke's feet as the boy ran from shadow to shadow, not daring to look at the creature that loomed behind him. Instead frightened coal eyes met uncaring crimson ground as the image of familial genocide was burned once more into his memory.

It was an abstract scene born of a traumatised child's nightmares mixing with the horrid reality that spawned them. It was a scene that had reappeared to Sasuke nightly for the rest of his life. He would never be permitted the ability to forget it. Every day, the people of his village would whisper their gossip as he walked past. Every day, the ghosts of his family would whisper in his ear their hatred of his weakness. How had the village allowed him to escape, the villagers would wonder. How had he not avenged them, his family would accuse.

Every day, he stared himself in the mirror and was glared back at by the memory of his younger self; a testament to his failures. Why was he so weak? Why was he so pathetic? Why was he allowing himself to become content parading around in a facsimile of a normal life with an idiot and an annoyance when Itachi yet lived.

Why was he smiling when the rest of his family wept in rage from within their place in the Impure World?

A single _Sharingan_ eye whirled dangerously as the eighteen year old Uchiha gazed upon a scene he had not viewed in five years. For five years he had allowed himself to languish within the illusion. For five years he had ignored his duty to his village, his family, and himself.

He would find his way back to the Leaf Village. He would track down Itachi. And he would kill him.

" _Foolish little brother."_

Why was it then, that he felt unbearably sad?

[Break]

Sasuke awoke to find himself floating amongst the sunken rubble of some kind of large building. Taking a moment to heft himself up out of the water to stand atop of it, he began to scan his surroundings; he hoped that he could find some semblance of familiarity among the scattered remnants of a broken civilisation.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Sasuke could not recognise any of the wreckage. It looked nothing like the architecture of any of the _shinobi_ villages he'd seen – detailed records aging back to before the villages even existed meant that he had seen every village in existence (bar any that might have appeared following the sudden case of massacre his clan had contracted). Nor did any of it resemble anything he had seen in Zanarkand.

Once more, Sasuke was lost and alone in an unfamiliar world. This one, for his not at all dwindling sanity's sake, was quite thankfully not inhabited by millions of illusionary people he could not interact with. It was instead merely filled with copious amounts of water, cold and darkness.

It felt like he was back in the Land of Waves again.

Treading carefully along the much too still for his liking waters, Sasuke kept a sharp _Sharingan_ inhabited eye out for any out of place movement that might appear below him. Almost equally sharp ears – thanks to a copious amount of chakra powered reinforcement – kept him aware of any clatterings and crawlings that might indicate something more dangerous than whatever small animals that subsisted of the ruined environment.

The due diligence of the young man paid off when he was able to safely step back to dodge the gaping jaw of the aquatic beast aimed for his throat. He had not been able to recognise the shape of the creature while it was beneath the water, and the glimpse he got of it above did nothing to remedy the situation.

" _Great. More weird animals_."

Not allowing himself to relax simply because of one miss allowed Sasuke to slice the next one to leap from out of the waters beneath him in twain. He was briefly surprised when instead of being coated in viscous liquid he instead received a face full of ghostly multi-coloured light. Ignoring the bizarreness of it, the Uchiha instead was thankful that he didn't need to bother cleaning the blood from his eye covering.

It made it much easier to sidestep the next creature that longed for death and deliver it it's much sought after desire. Tiring of having to evade the incessant attacks from below, Sasuke began to channel chakra to his hand, shaping it into lightning and elongating it across the surface of his blade. Watching the flickers and flashes of electrified chakra dance along his blade, the youth allowed a smirk to cross his otherwise impassive face.

Said smirk widened when he saw the much larger beast that swam past him, seemingly preying upon the weakened herd of smaller creatures Sasuke had been dodging.

" _Chidorigatana._ "

Sasuke plunged his electrified blade into the water, and watched in sadistic delight as all the annoying beasts that had been wasting his time quickly turned into squirming, screaming pieces of flesh. Pieces of flesh that were quite gleefully swallowed whole by the much larger creature that had appeared; a creature that seemed to be completely shrugging off the effects of swimming in electrified water.

His smirk vanished, leaving in its place a contemplative scowl. For the large beast to have been able to resist his technique so easily meant that its hide must have been incredibly thick. While Sasuke was sure a true _chidori_ would be able to piece the beast easily, that would require allowing him to sink within the beast's domain for no reason. He'd also end up electrocuting himself.

No, he was quite content not sinking to a level of idiocy not even Naruto would consider.

Maybe.

He did have clones after all.

Regardless, Sasuke was not an idiot, nor was he crazy enough to bet his life on chasing after the large creature for no other reason than it had resisted one weakened attack. Instead he fixed his gaze upon the crumbling but still mostly whole building in front of him. If nothing else, it would protect him from whatever weather that might appear. The last thing he wanted was to get rained on.

[Break]

Carefully trekking around the perforated pillars, weakened walkways and fractured facades, Sasuke slowly studied and investigated the dilapidated dwelling he was now within. From what he could gather the place had once been a place of worship. He had found innumerable wooden pews littered amongst the sides of hallways, artworks littered the walls themselves – frescos, he believed he had heard them called in Zanarkand. There were also the occasional bouquet of dead flowers here and there in vases.

Whatever had happened to the place, it had not occurred long ago, Sasuke decided. The wood was still freshly rotted, the frescos still quite visible and the flowers not long deteriorated. He was hardly an expert, but he'd estimate that it had only been ten years, approximately, since whatever had happened, happened.

His meanderings throughout the deserted temple came to a halt when he felt a peculiar, and quite large, chakra signature brush against his senses. It was strange, a chakra signature could only belong to a living human – numerous testing had been conducted on the phenomenon since before the founding of his home village, much of it he had read – and as far as Sasuke could tell no human had lived in this place since its destruction.

Sasuke allowed his mind to be filled with all the he knew on chakra signatures as he attempted to locate where the one he was sensing originated from. First, only humans had them. Some philosophers had tried to claim it was the existence of the soul that created it, most called those philosophers fools.

Next, any person with access to their chakra was able to feel them. It was a form of symbiotic empathy the latest findings had revealed. Chakra was emitted in minute, almost undetectable, quantities from the body and latched onto another's, as such people sensitive to changes in their own chakra (i.e. anyone with the slightest bit of access to the supernatural force) were able to feel this intermingling and subconsciously trace it to its source.

Chakra signatures were also able to be masked, by taking active focus on the chakra located in the body and suppressing it – forcing it to permeate and disperse inside of the body's cells, rather than the air. Sasuke remembered being surprised that something so basic had needed study; every _shinobi_ worth a damn knew how to do it after all. Further reading had enlightened him on as to why it was studied. Chakra suppression could cause long term side effects to the mind. It could cause major mental instability and had been linked to more cases than anyone had cared to count of psychotic breaks.

The leading theory suggested that that was the reason most high levelled _shinobi_ were so terribly… quirky. Psychologists had seemed eager to test said theory.

It was all very interesting, and Sasuke had been sure it would prove important someday; hence he had committed all that he could on the subject to memory. It was really too bad that all of that study seemed to be wrong, because Sasuke was quite sure that the signature he was sensing was being emitted from the six strangely shaped yet immaculate statues arrayed in a room in the temple's deepest depths.

Also, there was quite a large glyph in all its glowing glory hovering in quite the splendorous fashion in front of the opposite wall. It too had quite a large chakra signature. Confusion constituted a good part of how Sasuke felt as he gazed around the room. As did anger. Generations of his people, of his family, had wasted entire lifetimes forming their theories on how chakra worked, and how chakra signatures existed. And yet here, in this room, in this recently abandoned temple, was proof that it was all for naught and that the entire basis on which their theories was build was wrong.

It almost made Sasuke want to cry.

And destroy things.

Before the somewhat sanity deprived teen could act on anything he was feeling, his attention was pulled away from the room by the sound of a distant explosion. Sasuke gritted his teeth, desire to know what was so special about the room he was in waged war against pragmatic sense that whoever had caused the explosion was probably the only way he was finding transport away from the temple.

Pragmatism won in the end, but Sasuke vowed that he would return one day and investigate the source of the chakra. He quite hoped it was linked to destruction. Or fire, he'd always loved fire.

[Break]

Walking along the ceiling above the explosive intruders, Sasuke was frustrated to find that they spoke yet another language that he didn't recognise. He watched for what felt like hours as they searched the temple high and low, yet somehow never seemed to look straight up.

From what he could determine from the words that were constantly repeated, the temple was named Baaj, and they all answered to someone named Rikku. Also, they were all related to the man on the radio – it was either that or someone had decided to name their child Brother, and he doubted anyone could possibly be that daft.

Growing tired of looking at them look for something, Sasuke instead chose to spend his time observing them to assess their capabilities. They had chakra signatures, which apparently didn't mean much – with those masks they were all wearing it wasn't impossible for them to be golems of some kind. The signatures were ridiculously small, however; all of them combined might reach the strength of signature the average housewife emitted. The weapons they carried (guns, he remembered them being called) he surmised to be attempts to make up for such a drastic weakness.

Not that those guns would do them much good; he had seen their capabilities back in Zanarkand and had been left wanting. The projectiles they fired were small, and faster than the normal human eye could see. So too were _genin_ fresh out of the academy, but at least the _genin_ could do more than run in a straight line. Sasuke had promised himself that if he had ever managed to get so much as touched by a bullet he would hug Naruto and smile.

At the same time.

The leader, Rikku, was quite easy to spot. She was the only female in the group, and the only one with something other than a gun to defend themselves with. In fact, she didn't even have one; instead she appeared to have some form of studded glove and a bandolier of explosives.

With the blonde hair on top of her head and the cheerful attitude she displayed with her team Sasuke was left feeling as though he were looking back into his memories to when Naruto was first allowed to use explosive tags during training.

Naruto had never again been allowed to use explosive tags during training. Kakashi had claimed that the experience had given him flashbacks to a period of life better forgotten. Sasuke had assumed he meant the war.

Shaking off the traumatic memories of a horde of blondes grinning as they ran through a series of never ending explosions, Sasuke saw that the intruders had apparently found what they wanted. Or given up.

Either way, they were headed back for their boat, which meant it was time for him to introduce himself and request help getting somewhere that wasn't empty or filled with ghosts. He could of course simply sneak aboard, but he really didn't feel like hiding from people he didn't have to. He was a loner, but being alone for five years had a way of making even the most introverted want some form of human contact.

Dropping from the ceiling he landed in a crouch in front of the tense and armed men. He was surprised that he only got a pair of barrels shoved in his face, rather than have to show them just how horribly outmatched they would be by dodging their bullets.

"Fryd ec drec," one of the people said. Sasuke's eyes narrowed in irritation that he couldn't understand the man. The further pressing of the gun barrel into his cheek wasn't much appreciated either.

"Y fiend, eh risyh teckieca!" The reply from the first man's friend, standing behind the two wielding guns and thus safe from Sasuke's ire seemed to egg him on into doing something stupid. At least, that was if the way his fingers tightened around the trigger was any indicator. Maybe he was trying to calm the fool down.

"Fyed! Fryd ev ed ec risyh?" Perhaps seeing the way Sasuke was eyeing her friends in contemplation Rikku interjected. Whatever she said managed to get the two to hesitate slightly, which in turn caused Sasuke to hesitate in counting how many ways he could kill them before they noticed.

"Drao yna dra cysa eh taydr," the yet unspoken gun wielder said as he drew his weapon back from Sasuke's face, waving it in the air. His words must have been quite morbid, judging from the horrified look that marred Rikku's face. Sasuke had a feeling he might like that one, he'd always been a fan of morbid humour.

Having had quite enough of kneeling before a man with a loaded barrel in front of his face, Sasuke rose to his feet and gave the gun a light tap to move it from his face. He ignored the way the man seemed to freeze in horror as his gun impacted on the ground; it having been ripped from his weak hands and whatnot.

" _My name is Sasuke. I'd like you to take me anywhere that is not here._ "

He couldn't exactly see their faces, what with the masks and goggles in the way, but Sasuke assumed they couldn't understand what he said. Something about the long awkward silence following his words was telling. He took a small moment to revel in someone else feeling the same annoying confusion that he'd had to endure before letting irritation settle in. It seemed that he'd once more be stuck trying to learn a new language.

"Fryd tet ra cyo?"

"Hu etay."

"Hajan raynt dryd myhkiyka eh so meva."

"Faent."

"Damm sa ypuid ed."

"Ra'c gehty lida."

"Naymmo, Rikku?!"

Listening on as the group in front of him decided that having their own conversation was more important than him, Sasuke decided that he didn't like them. Them or their language. He was Sasuke Uchiha, a genius to be marvelled at. Not to be ogled, as the young blonde leader was doing. Years of childhood spent dealing with the obnoxious affections of his female classmates had instilled in him a knowledge of just what that grin and nodding head meant.

Narrowing his eyes in frustration, Sasuke decided to try something Naruto had recommend.

"My name is Sasuke. I want your help." The words were heavily accented, and stilted, but they came proficiently from his lips. Understandably too, if the sudden change in demeanour the group had. They tensed and trained their weapons on him again. Judging by the angry snarl on the visible faces, he'd said something wrong. This was why he never listened to Naruto.

"Tuk uv Yevon! Rikku, fa cruimt gemm res huf, pavuna ra dneac yhodrehk!"

The words came from the man he'd disarmed earlier, having scrambled to pick his gun back up and aim it between his eyes. Figuring that talking wasn't going to work, Sasuke allowed his uncovered eye to bleed red and aimed his own weapon, the formidable sneer passed from Uchiha father to Uchiha son for generations, back at the man.

" _Try it, moron._ " The man's body language seemed to indicate he didn't know whether he should be violently angry or violently ill. Sasuke was content to sneer at him until he chose but Rikku decided intervention was needed.

"Fyed! Wait!"

Sasuke directed his eye towards her, weighing up whether or not talking was worth the aggravation.

"You want help right? We can do that," she said. That decided that then, Sasuke thought. "It won't be free, but if you help us out, we'll do the same. How does that sound?"

[Break]

Rikku had seemed panicked and flustered when she proposed the deal, and hadn't talked about it more while she guided everyone back to the ship. From what he could see she made a good leader; her team respected and listened to her, and she'd been able to prevent them from swimming into an ambush of, from what he'd heard them exclaim, fiends.

Once they'd reached the ship, she'd left Sasuke outside under guard while she went to explain things to, and get permission from, the one everyone had been calling Brother. Which was fine by Sasuke, because it gave him time to look around the ship with his Sharingan, capturing as many details as he could that would allow him to distinguish the ship in the future. It wouldn't do if they decided to toss him overboard at some point and he wasn't able to recognise the ship to get his revenge later.

The door to the inside of the ship opened and captured everyone on deck's attention. A tattooed man with a strip of blonde hair emerged, closely followed by Rikku. Sasuke assumed that this was Brother.

Brother marched steadily yet fiercely towards the Uchiha, stopping short only when he stood a hairsbreadth away. The man's goggled eyes scanned Sasuke routinely, looking for what he couldn't say but it was apparently found. The man nodded with a grunt and motioned for the men surrounding Sasuke to back away.

Pulling a pair of goggles from his pocket he handed them to Sasuke before turning and marching back inside, pausing only to give Rikku a significant look.

The blonde girl smiled and gave her commander a salute, before facing Sasuke and beginning to explain.

"We've found some ancient ruins right beneath us. It's not active now, but there should still be some power left. We're gonna go down there and activate it…and then we should be able to salvage the big prize! You help us do that, and we'll take you anywhere you want, got it?"

Sasuke nodded, it was an easy enough exchange. The only difference between this and the normal C-ranked mission he would undertake on behalf of the Leaf Village was that the village wasn't getting a cut of the reward. And the reward was transport, not money.

"All right, let's go!"

Rikku dived overboard, and Sasuke quickly followed. They moved swiftly through the water downwards, following the large chain attached to the boat that stretched on into the dark; presumably towards the ruins she'd said were there.

There were a couple skirmishes with the aquatic fiends that lived in the waters, large piranha-like creatures, but they were handily exterminated between Sasuke's sword and Rikku's gauntlets.

Arriving at the ruins they quickly found a hole in one of the walls, presumably a former window and made their way inside. It had been a while since Sasuke had had to hold his breath for so long, he'd stopped practicing the skill back in Zanarkand once he'd managed to reach an hour without issue. But he hadn't practiced fighting at the same time, nor had he been quite this deep into the water to have to handle the pressure. It was taking more chakra than he expected to continue going.

He could feel his respect for his blonde companion rise with every passing minute, she didn't seem to have any issue with the task and unlike him wasn't utilising vague chakra techniques to strengthen her lungs and cardiovascular system.

He watched as she interacted with the semi-active machinery, activating doors and switching the generator on as he fended off the infrequent attacks from the piranha-like fiends. Time passed without issue, and soon enough they were heading to secure the last objective – the generator itself – when everything went wrong.

A large squid creature had apparently decided to make the generator room its den, and didn't take too kindly to two humans disrupting its peace. Lamentably for Sasuke and Rikku, they had been underwater for quite a while at that point in time, and were both exhausted from the strain their bodies had endured.

To make matters worse, underwater as they were Sasuke couldn't exactly use any of his techniques. Not without electrocuting the both of them or scalding his own face, at least. Rikku, taking a look around the room they were in, seemed to hatch a plan; she motioned for Sasuke to fight the squid on his own before she swam off in the opposite direction.

At least, Sasuke hoped she'd formed a plan and wasn't just running away.

Regardless, Sasuke positioned himself in front of the squid and fended off its tentacles as well as he could. With every swing at him they earned a new scar as his blade dug deep into them. But, limited in movement underwater as he was, he couldn't manage to deflect every blow. The blows came from every direction, and he simply couldn't defend his vitals from all of them.

It was as he was recovering from the latest blow – one that had caught him in the temple and thrown him into a nearby wall – that Rikku seemed to initiate her plan. A pair of explosives sailed through the water, each impacting on one of the squid's eyes before detonating.

The shockwave ripped through the water and pressed Sasuke back against the wall. Feeling a welling of blood inside his throat, Sasuke recognised that he had to finish the fight quick – before the internal bleeding reached a point where it would need immediate medical attention. As it was, his desire to be taken anywhere that wasn't here had become anywhere with a functional hospital.

Pressing his feet against the wall, Sasuke channelled chakra through his legs before pushing off. He surged through the water towards the large squid, he's strengthened push propelling him through the water as though it were air. Quickly breaching the panicked guard of the blinded creature, swinging its tentacles in every direction hoping to catch one of them, Sasuke utilised his momentum to cleanly slice through it.

The bifurcated squid gave off a wailing death cry before it scattered apart into the glowing pyreflies all the creatures of this place were apparently made of. Sasuke felt a need to give off his own wailing cry, as more blood welled up in his body, forcing its way up through his throat and out his mouth, tinging the blue waters around him red.

Seeing that, Rikku pulled a bottle of… something out of a pouch she had before passing it to him. She motioned for him to drink it before swimming away to do whatever it was she needed to do with the generator. Not trusting it to not be poison, Sasuke instead placed it within his own pouch as the world lit up around him – various lights among the ruins coming to life.

The ascension back to the ship was a slow process, needing to pause every dozen or so feet for minutes at a time. Every pause led to violent expulsions of blood from his mouth, and every expulsion of blood had Rikku grab another bottle of whatever to pass to him and motion to drink. With every new bottle the motion became fiercer, which Sasuke couldn't decide was because she was worried if he would live through the ascension or if he would die. Either way, Sasuke simply pocketed every new bottle he was given.

Finally breaching the surface of the water, Sasuke vomited yet another torrent of blood. Without wasting a single second Rikku proceeded to grab another bottle and force its contents down his throat.

"Fryd geht uv eteud yna oui?! Tnehg druca tysh budeuhc un cu ramb sa E'mm syga oui _fecr_ oui tnufhat eh ouin ufh pmuut!"

The angry tirade in a foreign language did little to impress upon Sasuke' weary and blood deprived mind anything. He did however manage to commit to memory what he would later learn were some quite inventive curses towards him and the intelligence of his forebears. As it was at the time however, Sasuke could only wish to know just what 'Malboro' meant.

Heaving himself up on the deck of the ship, Sasuke rolled onto his back and found himself on the receiving end of a goggled glare. Reaching under his tattered makeshift skirt, she pulled the dozen or so bottle out of his pouch before dropping them on his chest. A finger pointed in his face stopped him from opening his mouth to comment.

"Quiet." The finger moved from his face to point at the bottles. "Drink." It then moved to point towards several tarp covered boxes. "Rest."

She proceeded to spin on her heel and storm inside. Seeing little else better to do, Sasuke shrugged and did as she had bade. If it were poison, he'd already had one bottle of the stuff. Better to drink more and go quickly than try and fight a losing battle.

[Break]

Hearing the door open, Sasuke looked up from where he was resting against the crates he'd been directed towards. Seeing that it was Rikku, he didn't bother looking away. The only real reason she had to be up on deck was likely him, so there was no point in trying to ignore her. Especially since she was carrying a tray of food.

He did however ignore the way her eyes scanned the half dozen empty bottles and several puddles of blood scattered around his figure. He also ignored whatever it was she muttered under her breath. It contained that Malboro word, not that he would know since he wasn't' paying it any heed and all.

The blonde took a deep breath to calm down before smiling and setting the tray down in front of him.

"Here, eat up." It was more a command than a suggestion. He couldn't quite remember the last time he'd seen such an eerily repugnant smile.

Sasuke once more did as he was bade by the blonde, taking his time to make sure he didn't end up choking. Pausing for a moment from his meal, Sasuke directed his gaze at the empty bottles before looking at Rikku.

"What was drink?" he asked.

"Those? Those were potions," she responded. Sasuke's blank gaze revealed exactly how much he knew what a potion was. "Y'know, liquefied White Magic? The all-purpose great restorative gifted to us by his divine great godliness Yevon?" The last question was spoken in the type of sarcastic tone that implied that whatever a potion was even a child knew it.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, he didn't. Nor did he know what White Magic or Yevon were. He also didn't appreciate having that tone used on him. It was a tone he'd held in great reverence as the one to be used on Naruto whenever he said something exceedingly stupid. To have it used on him was… unpleasant, to say the least.

"Honestly, did you hit your head or something?" Rikku's continued use of the tone baited an acerbic reply out of the stoic Uchiha.

"Yes. Many times," he directed a dry glare towards the suddenly somewhat sheepish blonde. "Last one, your fault. Shockwave from boom into wall."

"Oh," Rikku appeared not to know what to say in reply to the accusation. "Sorry about that." She scratched the back of her head and gave him a rueful grin. It was a habit that he had seen Naruto do too many times in the past and he found their images overlapping.

Sasuke feared the level of idiocy that might be produced were the two blonde fools to ever meet.

"Anyway!" Rikku attempted to steer the conversation on to something else, "How did you end up in that temple in the first place?"

"Don't know," Sasuke said. "Woke up there after Sin attacked."

Rikku's expression morphed into one of shock.

"Did you say Sin?" she asked. Sasuke replied with a short nod. "No wonder you don't know anything! They say Sin emits a toxin; anyone who manages to survive a close encounter with it ends up with their mind all messed up."

Sasuke strongly doubted that that was what had caused his lack of knowledge. He could quite vividly recall the thirteen years of his life lived in the Leaf Village, and the five years of subsequent loneliness in Zanarkand after he'd tried to leave. Most of all, he could remember the massacre of his clan, and the nightmares of having been made to relive it endlessly for 72 hours. Twice. There was no way this Sin was strong enough to implant such graphic horrors into his psyche. There was nothing more monstrous in this world than Itachi.

"Well, don't worry. I'm sure you'll be better in no time!" Rikku seemed to take his silence regarding Sin's toxin as him attempting to remember things forgotten. He had little desire to dissuade her of that opinion. It would do nothing to help. "Anyway, where did you want us to take you? As a warning, we're Al Bhed, so not a lot of places are gonna be welcoming, exactly."

"Al Bhed?" Sasuke asked.

"You don't know who the Al Bhed are either? Geez, next you're gonna say you don't know Yevon!" Sasuke was sure she meant it in jest, but shook his head anyway. He had a convenient excuse in Sin's toxin, and he wasn't going to waste the opportunity to learn more about wherever he was.

"Oh. Oh wow. That's… do you remember anything?" She looked honestly crestfallen when he shook his head yet again. An honest, kind soul. She really was a female Naruto.

"In that case, I guess we'll just head for Luca. No way someone won't recognise you there." Before Sasuke could ask why she was so confident he'd meet someone in Luca, she rushed off back below deck. Alone once more Sasuke began to pick at his food again.

So many places and things he had no idea about. A whole knew… race? Nationality? Humans that were different from, and seemed to be at odds with, whatever this Yevon was. And magic? What kind of tribal people were these, to believe in magic of all things. There was chakra, and chakra. That was the only supernatural force that existed in the world.

Just like humans were the only ones to emit chakra signatures.

Finished with his food Sasuke groaned as he pulled himself up on to his feet. His legs had begun to grow numb from being in the same position for too long and needed stretching.

As he began to pace along the deck of the ship he was caught off guard when the whole thing suddenly shook. Using an application of chakra to his feet to stay clinging to the deck, he barely paid attention as a group of Al Bhed raced out of the hold onto deck with him.

"Sin!" he heard one proclaim. His eye widening, Sasuke began to run over to the railing to get a look at the monster himself. To encounter it twice in as many days… he was sure that it was no coincidence.

Caught in his speculation as he was, he didn't pay enough attention to his surroundings. One of the crates he had been crouching against not five minutes before came loose, impacting against his back and knocking him overboard.

The last sight he saw before hitting the water was Rikku, hand outstretched towards him with a look of panic on her face.


End file.
